At the end of January 2023, the Slovenian mutual funds AUM amounted to EUR 4.18bn, a decrease of 2.1% YoY, but a noteworthy increase of 5.7% MoM.
Recently, the Slovenian Securities Market Agency (ATVP) published its latest monthly report of the developments that were recorded by the Slovenian Mutual funds, for January 2023. Even though 2022 proved to be quite challenging for many different asset classes, including shares, and bonds, among others, January 2023 marked a quite positive beginning of the year. In fact, despite the decline in the assets under management (AUM) of Slovenian mutual funds on a yearly basis of 2.1%, on an MoM basis, they increased by 5.7%.
Breaking this down further, on the monthly basis, the largest absolute increase was recorded by share holdings, which grew by EUR 173m, or 6.3%, followed by investment funds, which increased by EUR 52m, or 22.9%, and bond holdings, which increased by EUR 12.7m, or 2%. Meanwhile, on a YoY basis, most of the asset classes either declined or remained roughly the same. The only noteworthy increase was recorded by the money market holdings and cash holdings, which increased by EUR 39m (or 151%) and EUR 19m, or 10%.
In terms of the percentage in total AUM, shares are still holding the vast majority, at 70% of the total, representing an increase of 0.4 p.p. MoM, but a decrease of 1 p.p. YoY. Following them, we have bond holdings, which account for 15.8% of the total, representing a decrease of 0.6 p.p. MoM, and an increase of 0.4 p.p. YoY, as well as the money market, deposit & cash holdings, which accounted for 6.9% of the total, a decrease of 0.6 p.p. MoM, and an increase of 0.9 p.p. YoY. Finally, we have investment funds, which account for 6.7% of the total AUM, an increase of 0.9 p.p. MoM, and 0.4 p.p. YoY.
Total assets of Slovenian mutual funds (June 2007 – January 2023, EURbn)
Source: ATVP, InterCapital Research
Looking at the equity holdings more closely, home issuers equity securities amounted to EUR 60.1m in January 2023, an increase of 7.3% MoM, but a decrease of 22.3% YoY. Meanwhile, foreign issuers’ equity securities amounted to EUR 2.87bn, an increase of 6.3% MoM, but a decline of 3% YoY. This is in line with the trends and developments we have seen in Slovenia but also abroad in January 2023, as the month recorded some solid returns, especially in Slovenia.
Equity holdings of Slovenian UCITS funds (October 2007 – January 2023, EURm)
Source: ATVP, InterCapital Research
Moving on to the net contributions into the funds, we can see that they amounted to EUR 21m in January 2023. Even though this is an improvement as compared to December, it is still app. 20% lower than in the same month of 2022. In fact, looking at the last 12 months, we can see that the net contributions amounted to EUR 202.9m, a reduction of 56.5% compared to the same period last year. However, it should be noted that investments in 2021 especially, were extremely high in Slovenia. In fact, the main Slovenian index, SBITOP, recorded an increase of over 40% (excluding dividends!) in 2021. As such, the reduction we witness here is not so much a result of the negative macroeconomic developments (although it is still under its influence), but also a return to a normal trend. This is also supported by the number of subscribers; in January 2023, it amounted to 511.2k, an increase of 2.9% YoY. This number has steadily been growing in this entire period, so it could be said that even though the net contributions in some periods were lower, mostly due to a lot of redemptions of the funds’ stakes, the overall contributions into the funds were enough to mitigate, and even surpass this.
Net contributions into the Slovenian mutual funds (January 2016 – January 2023, EURm)
Source: ATVP, InterCapital Research
